Sunday, March 25, 2007

More Engrish

Well, it's time to balance the scales again to compensate for all our mistakes in Japanese. They've been plenty. Who knew that the word for "organization" and "funeral" were so similar in Japanese? It sure surprised my teacher to know that my medical expenses would be handled at my funeral. That said, on to the Engrish!

This first sign is from an italian restaurant Misty and I love. The food is really great, but the r's and l's aren't so good. In Japanese r and l are the same letter, so it can be a little confusing transliterating sometimes. Some of you may remember the Eric "Crapton" sign we posted the last time.

The sign to the right is pretty funny. It's practically unintelligible, but the part I think is most fun is that they warn you that they will not be held responsible if your remains are stolen.

This picture is from the restroom of the Tokyo International Hostel. All in all, it's not a bad place to stay if you're looking for somewhere cheap and clean. The sign is supposed to tell you to hold the button in until the toilet flushes. We were a little surprised that the hostel's signs were so poorly translated since the staff spoke such good English.

This last one, also from the hostel, is possibly our favorite Engrish sign that we've seen since arriving in Japan. You may be asking yourself, "Who would use the toilet for laundry or personal hygiene?" Rest assured, no one makes that mistake here. The Japanese says not to use the sink, but the word they use here for sink is really similar to one of the words they use for toilet. Someone just looked one line down in the dictionary by mistake.